*Spoiler alert for the kiddies or those still young at heart*

Ok, this blog was long in the making. Mama and I have argued over this since before we were married so it was weighed and measured before taking our vows and yet to this day we still have not come to a joint consensus regarding our kids and one, “ahem”: anta-Say, aus-Clay

Mama has always been of the mind that yes, our kids are believing in Santa until they are old enough to figure it out, if ever they decide to. Santa comes in his sleigh every Christmas Eve, brings presents every Christmas for the children, fills their stockings with toys if we are good, and will give them a lump of coal if we are naughty. Rudolph, elves, north pole..etc…

I have been raised of a mind-set that it is deliberately lying to our kids, bribing them to be good, and setting them up for a heartbreak years later.

Now before you label me a Scrooge or a Grinch I must first give you some background about my childhood.

My upbringing was in a private Christian School that fervently emphasized that Christmas was not about Santa Claus or getting presents, but about the gift of God sending his Son to earth for all mankind. It is a time for giving because we have received the greatest gift of all and we should want to give to others because of it. It is possible to believe both as a child, but sooner or later, they will catch on about ‘Santa…the Easter Bunny…the Tooth Fairy’ and all the other ‘imaginaries’ we have taught them, what will they assume about the whole ‘God sending his son’ business if none of the other things are real?

This was taught from preschool on up and reemphasized by pretty much everyone around me, relatives, babysitters, teachers (The school I went to was also affiliated with the church we went to). My dad was a teacher there, my aunt was my 4th grade teacher, my uncle the music teacher and my sister and 5 of my cousins went there at some point. Every baseball team I was on starting at age 5 was comprised all of kids from my school and church until I was 11. As a result, all of my classmates and family were of like mind and did not teach or believe in Santa either, so there was no danger of ‘spoiling’ it for the others. My younger cousins called him ‘Santa Clown’ when they were little.

They taught us that Santa is just pretend like an imaginary friend. People dress up as Santa like people dress up for Halloween.

On a side note, also, we never celebrated Halloween, so I have never been trick-or-treating, (again, I was taught that ‘Trick-or-treat’ is basically extortion for candy with the threat of a ‘trick’ on the other end, and for a long time I was actually scared of trick-or-treaters)

Anyways, logically my position makes sense to me, but Mama’s position makes sense to her. Children ought to have an imagination while they are still young and innocent. It is a fun tradition to look forward to every year even when they are too old for it. (The stockings and milk and cookies and carrots and everything). When kids are old enough to figure out about Santa, they are old enough to discern the reality of the ‘Christmas story’ vs. the pretend ‘Santa story.’ She believed in Santa when she was little and turned out just fine. I’m sure others did as well…

…but we never resolved how we were going to raise our kids. I suppose this year we will not have to worry about it because Jonny is too little but whatever we decide, we need to be on the same page. Thoughts?